By: Joey Raymond

All Photo Credit: Katie Lovell-LMS Network

It’s Thursday afternoon and the Virginia Tech Hokies women’s basketball team finally has their opponent. The ACC tournament is underway and so far it’s been extremely fun to watch. Most of the games have been close, and we’ve already seen some upsets. From Virginia losing in the final seconds to Wake Forest, to Boston College coming within inches of upsetting Louisville. This tournament has been one of the more entertaining years of the ACC tournament. Which brings us to the Hokies next opponent. The Miami Hurricanes are set to face the one-seeded Hokies after sealing a win in a wild final seconds against North Carolina. Some massive question marks are coming into this game, the biggest being whether or not Liz Kitley will play for the Hokies. The two teams will tip off on Friday, March 8th, at 1:30 pm.

These two squads already played once this year, when the Hurricanes came into Blacksburg and hit the brick wall that is Liz Kitley. Off the back of their now-time-winning ACC player of the year, the Hokies won 76-52. The problem for the Hokies? They have no clue whether Liz Kitley is going to be ready to go this time around. On Tuesday, Liz Kitley appeared on ‘ACC PM’and said that she is “feeling pretty good and taking it day-by-day.’’ It’ll be extremely interesting to see whether the Hokies can have her play, but even if they don’t I would not count the Hokies out. The Hokies earned that one seed in large part to Liz Kitley but don’t forget about Georgia Amoore and the rest of the squad. The Hokies are not the same team without Kitley but they’re still full of sharpshooters and Kenny Brooks will have them ready to play.

The Hokies will have their hands full from Miami, with players like Lazaria Spearman spearheading the Hurricanes. In the game against North Carolina, she finished the game with 12 points and 10 rebounds but where she shined was her leadership on the court. She provided the energy and leadership that the Hurricanes needed to win in that game. She’ll need to be contained, and if the Hokies are without Liz Kitley, they’ll need some players to step up. Players like Matilda Eck and Cayla King are the two players who immediately come to mind. King and Eck are going to be X factors in this game. Georgia Amoore is sure to get most of the attention if Kitley is not present. To help her out, Eck and King will need to relieve some of the pressure for the Hokies to be successful.

​Regardless of whether Kitley plays or not, this game is sure to go drastically different than the last matchup. The Miami Hurricanes are live for March. Last year, they were the Cinderella team of the NCAA tournament, upsetting a number one-seeded Indiana, en route to an elite eight appearance, where they met eventual national champion LSU. I say all this to say don’t count out Miami in March. They’re an extremely good basketball team that the Hokies shouldn’t overlook. Now with that being said, I still believe that the Hokies are worthy of that number one seed. This game will be close, odds are high scoring and most importantly, entertaining. The Hokies will show their muscle in this one though, winning 65-63.